“It was a really tough decision for him,” Bartelstein said. “Boston was an incredible experience for him every way you look at it. If he was going to leave Boston, he wanted to make sure it was for a team that would compete for championship immediately and the Hornets certainly are in that world.”

We liked James and we wanted him back,” Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said. “He got a good deal in New Orleans. We were unwilling to go four years.”

Before everyone starts going all crazy, let’s take a hard look at Posey’s stats in the playoffs: 6.7 points and 3.6 rebounds. He did a helluva job on the defensive end and hit some huge 3s, but the Celtics can repeat without the Mongoose.

My favorite Posey moments:

-His 3-point dagger with 1 minute left in Game 4 of the Finals which capped the greatest playoff comeback ever.

-The steal on Tayshaun Prince with some 2 minutes left in Game 6 of the ECF. It sealed the game and the series.

Prior to tonight’s screen of the Celtics championship DVD, James Posey met with the media. Just like his agent has been doing since free agency began, Posey didn’t divulge much information. Here’s the latest from the Globe’s Gary Dzen:

“You’ve got to look at both sides,” said Posey, who was sporting a black Red Sox hat. “Both sides do what’s best for themselves. … It’s like college recruiting again.”

Posey, who also did not mention any specific teams and said he didn’t have a timetable for making a decision, said only that playing for a contender was important to him, and that he had been contacted by current members of the Celtics trying to convince him to stay.

“Yes, I’ve talked to those guys … they can only do so much,” Posey said.

Posey sounded like a Patriot, dropping cliches like “taking it one day at a time” and “it is what it is,” so I wouldn’t read too much into what he said. The most important thing was his attendance and the fact that he was talking with Danny Ainge which shows the negotiations are amicable.

Could the Comcast SportsNet web sitebe any weaker? They consider themselves Celtics central yet never post any of the interviews in a timely manner. Dickerson was at the screening tonight, interviewed Wyc and Posey yet the video is nowhere to be found on the web site.

In other news, Bill Russell is working on a memoir about his relationship with Red Auerbach. “Red and Me” is due out in spring of 2009. Unfortunately, I no longer have the time, patience or attention span to read anything longer than a blog so I’ll probably miss out on this gem.

“We’re not trying to be tough here or anything, but I just don’t think you can do that,” Bartelstein said. “It’d be totally unfair for me to do that to the other teams that are involved in this. You can’t ask them to make an offer just so you can take it back to Boston and see if they’ll match it. I think that once you’re a free agent, you’re a free agent. You have to be fair to any team that’s willing to make you an honest offer.”

We are spending some time looking back over the Boston Celtics championship season… in an effort to truly appreciate the efforts of those involved. In our eight installment of our series, we continue our appreciation of the players.

Today may be the last day James Posey is officially a member of the Boston Celtics.

Aside from any sentence involving the words “devastating injury” and any member of our Big 3… that is the scariest sentence for a Celtics fan to read right now. Quite honestly, the appreciation of James Posey could end right there, because that perfectly sums up how we feel about him. Losing him will be a major hit to our chances of celebrating Banner 18.

Now comes the good news.

The Celtics want him back. The fans want him back. And he, apparently, wants to be back. His agent has said many times over the past week that Posey loves it in Boston. He loves the situation. The loves the management. And he loves how the fans are very well aware that he’s extremely important to our chances. When Danny Ainge signed Posey, the whole thing snapped into focus. Like one of those old magic eye posters, a clear picture suddenly emerged from the muck (“Oh look… it’s a championship ring”).

Posey is a do-it-all guy. When the Celtics were embarrassing the Lakers in Game 6, Posey became “The Mongoose,” because he was the point-man in shutting down The Mamba. When the other team’s big slasher was feeling his oats, it was Posey that took more charges than Visa. And When the Celtics were making their epic comeback in Game 4, it was Poz and Eddie House who were drilling back-breaking 3’s. In fact, many of Posey’s biggest 3’s over the season were comeback-killers… 3’s that killed momentum and made sure the Celtics maintained, or even extended, a lead.

James Posey is a classic Boston hero. He comes in, does his job, does it well, and leaves. As die-hard as we all are, do you know what his voice sounds like? If you turned on the radio mid-interview… would you know right away that it was Posey talking? Probably not… because he doesn’t do much talking after games.

Nope, he just comes in and does the dirty work. And for that, James, we appreciate the job you’ve done in helping us achieve the ultimate goal… an NBA title.

Gotta say… that Lakers funeral was awesome yesterday. Yes, Red’s Army was there. And yes, that’s us much closer to the bar entrance than the parade. Lucky for me and Chuck, we’re both tall enough to stay virtually tethered to the bar… while still getting a fantastic view of the parade.

I’ve got a TON of pictures to go through from the parade… taken by both RedsArmy.com and our readers (thanks for all your emails. Feel free to send more if you’d like). So I’ll have to work on that and post a link or two later. There will also probably be dozens of YouTube clips.

But for now… it’s time to get back to business. And what has shaken out to be the number 1 off-season story right now is resigning James Posey. The Mongoose (I’m REALLY trying to get that nickname to stick) can opt out of the $3.4 million and everyone expects him to do so.

So what will it take? What should it take? What if he leaves? What if he… GULP… goes to the Lakers??

I’m gonna guess that Poz won’t go start somewhere because a team that would look for him to start probably doesn’t have the championship caliber squad he’d be looking for. If he opts out of $3.4 million… what can he expect to get on the open market? $5 mil? 6? At 31, he’s not going to hang around TOO much longer, but he’s proven he’s a perfect guy off the bench that can both defend and hit clutch jumpers.

The real question is how much luxury tax is this team willing to pay? Last season, the luxury tax threshold was $67.8 mil. The C’s payroll was about $74 mil. So that’s about $7 mil. in luxury tax money paid by the team. However… I’m sure they made that, and more, by winning the title (mostly from people like me, who have spent 3 paychecks on championship gear). The cap, and the tax threshold will grow.. but so will the payroll. The players currently under contract (including Posey) push the payroll a little closer to $75 million… but that’s without Eddie House… and that’s without whatever extra Poz could get.

What can the Celtics offer Posey to keep him? Off the top of my very exhausted head… I think maybe 2 or 3 years… $5 or $6 mil. per year could do it. My hope is that he looks around, sees what he has here in Boston… and decides that a $2 mil./year raise and more rings is enough to make him happy. Maybe he looked out over that parade and thought “there’s no way I’ll get this kind of love somewhere else.” Listening to him talk DURING the parade (6:13 mark)… you can tell there is no way he expected that kind of turnout.

My fear is that a Western Conference contender will try to make a move on Posey. Utah, I believe, is under the cap… so I’d expect them to make him an offer. I’m sure some teams out west will offer a mid-level exception (which last year was $5.3 mil) because he was such a lock-down guy on Kobe. Those Western want to get past LA, and Posey will help them. Here’s hoping Poz sticks around.

By the way…. that link is a 30 minute chunk of the rally. You can go here to hear Scott Pollard and Ray live it up… Doc Rivers shocked at the turnout… Wyc Grousbeck guaranteeing another parade (I know… burying the lead)… and Big Baby being a (shirtless) Big Baby.

These pictures show two things: (1) Leon Powe still exists… and (2) the mood at practice seems to be loose.

I think Poze was checking out Leon’s butt in the first picture. Then that might be him doing ‘The Robot.’ Nice to see Leon still keeping sharp. You never know when Doc might pull a neck-breaking 180 and decide to play Leon Powe, a guy known for never quitting and always being ready. What can I say…I love Leon.

I’m a big Posey fan, but he has been absolutely horrible the last 5 or 6 games. I can live with him not hitting his shot, but his defense has been atrocious. Lebron shot somethink like 35% with Pierce on him, and near 60% with Posey on him.

Were you watching last night when they put him on Rip for a couple of posessions? It wasn’t even a contest. I don’t remember him taking a charge recently, which he did all season. And, both he and Pierce were responsible for that layup Billups had at the end of the game.

I may not have been looking at it… and maybe I was going a little too nuts to notice.

But I have noticed a drop off in Posey’s play over the past couple of games. And since I’ve considered Posey perhaps the most valuable player on this team in the past… could Posey be the reason why the Celtics have been having a hard time recently?

Let’s get one thing straight right away: KG was a monster that shut a lot of people up. He carried the team offensively, and he drove hard the hoop for what turned out to be a game winning layup. Awesome game for KG… and that aggressiveness should scare Cavs fans.

But I want to make sure that the defensive effort on LeBron isn’t lost… especially since the national media will be swinging from LeBron’s sack… declaring that something must have been “off” with LeBron’s game. Yeah… he might have missed a couple of shots he normally makes… but the real story was that Paul Pierce and James Posey smothered him all night long.

I’ll go so far as to say I will gladly sacrifice Paul Pierce’s offensive numbers if it means he plays LeBron like that for the rest of the series. He sacrificed his body and took two huge charges. He forced LeBron into a number of turnovers… including a crucial travelling call late in the game. Both Posey and Pierce kept LeBron in front of them for most of the game… and forced him to shoot (and miss) jumpers. It was a great defensive effort last night… and I want to make sure its known out there that the Celtics defense threw LeBron off.